Oh, I didn't think about that. But it's still a bit weird using people from other games to promote DOA. Don't think I've seen anything like it for other fighting games.
It's something I think we'll start seeing more of. Bandai started using Maximillian as a promotonal figure for their games, despite building his reputation with other games like KI and Marvel. TN wants DOA6 to appeal to the larger FGC, so it makes sense they'd pursue positive testimonies from respected figures. As for the randies... yeah. It's weird.
It just bothers me that they assume Itabashi didn't know how to react to VF despite being a pro VF player. Tokido at least played SC, so, they coulda put him. Just glad Master and fox was there. OH and it is funny shimbori knows how to play his game but if you tell Harada to do it, he's meh, doesn't play a mishima because it is hard and lol getting Ono to play SF wouldn't happen is why Peter Rojas did it with SFV
Having a dev or director that knows how to play their respected game is a good sign. lol remember when Yu Suzuki beat Harada is Tekken 6 and VF5? Point is that Shimbori will be more inclined to agree with the core audience on changes and balance. Glad Kayane at least pointed that out.
I'm cool with people like Kayane repping DOA, or PR Balrog playing DOA6 at EVO'18. As much as I hate to say it, besides MASTER, or SonicFox, for instance DOA doesn't really have many big name figures for game promotion. As for me, I just want to see more quality Japanese DOA play because I know the JP arcade scene was pretty solid at DOA5UA.
Kayane is my favorite interviewer because she has the balls to call out devs on their bullshit to their face. She pretty much stands alone in that respect. Pretty interesting.
As Force said, DoA's main community doesn't really have influencers. Wouldn't be worth flying out someone like kwiggle to sell the game to his 800 followers who probably were going to buy anyway.
Bamco acts like people aren't supposed to play the game well. Isn't that what they want? Except harada who refuses to put in game frame data. It baffles me they want to listen to causals when they were waiting on RDR2 anyway. Myself included.
I am sure DOA players are willing to promote DOA. The thing is that DOA doesn’t have big names besides MASTER and SonicFox. It’s understandable that they want big names within the FGC to promote their game such as Kayane, Yuyu, Tanukana, etc. If players with a big influence promote their game, more people will play it. It’s a smart marketing strategy.
The big names don't mean anything if they don't stick around to play it though.
If you want Knee or Tanukana from Tekken or Max to play it then they have to "stay" playing it while also playing the fighters they are most comfortable with.
Max particularly mostly does it for clicks despite mentioning good things here and there. If Max continues to play it there can be at least solid DOA exposure instead of "one time and forget about it later". IMO there is probably more faith for JPN big name players to do better promotional purposes than the ones popular out here for DOA.
Too many big names actually tried DOA and majority didn't stick around because why would they? realistically speaking here. It's basically stepping out of their comfort zone sometimes.
Sonic Fox is probably the few ones for "big names", but at times he dislikes talking about DOA along with interviews for it (you can ask him) yet he will still support DOA and continue to play it.
I wouldn't say it doesn't mean anything. Sure it's more impactful if an influencer decides to stand by a product they've endorsed but the simple exposure from them and their outlets alone is significant. So much so that various companies spend upwards of 10k for single minute ad reads/mentions from such influencers. If they decide to stick with the product I agree it would be more effective but that's up to them.
Considering this is DOA we are talking about, you are looking at milestones here. DOA is not a huge game overall, part of consecutive portions of a healthly life span is getting people to try it and then actually stay with it. I mean Shimbori himself said back on the E3 articles is that he wants more people playing it, but how can you do that if people play and then never return after that first week/month etc.?